2. Content Area & Pedagogical Knowledge

The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teacher creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and evidence-based practice.

Artifact 1: Nutrition Unit Plan

Description of Artifact

This artifact is a 15-day unit on nutrition that is designed for 9th grade novice level Spanish students. This unit demonstrates how I strive to integrate the study of language and culture. Learning a language, like Spanish, is not only about learning the alphabet, the meaning of words, the grammar rules, and how to form sentences; it is also about learning the behavior of the society and its cultural customs. It is my strong belief that language teaching should always be tied to the culture from which the language is extracted. For this reason, the focus of the present unit is for students to not only learn to talk about food, diet and health in Spanish, but also understand the cultural norms and perspectives surrounding these topics in Spanish-speaking countries. Food and nutrition are important aspects of culture to understand and analyze because what we eat is tied to our experiences and shapes who we are. In this unit, students will learn to communicate about the food they eat, express preferences for certain foods, identify healthy and unhealthy foods in our cultures, and compare and contrast the typical eating and exercise habits in our culture with those of Spanish-speaking regions. Students will draw connections between their food and exercises choices and the culture in which they live. They will also learn how to navigate interactions surrounding food, such as understanding and ordering food in Spanish-speaking restaurant. All of these learning objectives reflect the learning standards set for novice level students by the Illinois State Board of Education and ACTFL.

Standards Connection

The following artifact demonstrates the IPT performance indicator 2J which states that the competent teacher "uses differing viewpoints, theories, and methods of inquiry in teaching subject matter concepts". In this unit plan, I utilize the approaches of communicative teaching comprehensible input, and TPR in order to maximize student learning. The effectiveness of these approaches in increasing student learning is backed by numerous research studies. The learning tasks, projects, and assessments included in this unit plan also demonstrate the IPT performance indicator 2K which states that the competent teacher "engages students in the processes of critical thinking and inquiry and addresses standards of evidence of the disciplines". Every lesson ties together the essential understandings I want students to gain from this unit, learning objectives, and state standards for foreign language proficiency development. In doing so, I use a variety of materials, assignments, learning tasks, and informal and formal assessments in my instruction. This demonstrates the performance indicator 2M which states that the competent teacher "uses a variety of explanations and multiple representations of concepts that capture key ideas to help each student develop conceptual understanding and address common misunderstandings". Lastly, this unit plan demonstrates how the content in this course relates to that taught in other courses like health and science. Students engage in an analysis of nutrition information on food labels during several lessons. This demonstrates the performance indicator 2N which states that the competent teacher "facilitates learning experiences that make connections to other content areas and to life experiences".

Reflection

I learned so much about the process of using the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework to design units of study by creating this artifact. The UbD framework provides educators with a structured planning process to guide curriculum, assessment, and instruction. In the UbD framework, the teacher first identifies the desired student outcomes and then plans the curriculum, choosing the activities, materials, and resources that help determine student ability and foster student learning. This approach contrasts greatly with the traditional approach in which teachers start by planning the curriculum and then identifies what students should know and be able to do. The UbD framework instead values the importance of identifying those long-term desired results first to avoid teaching which has no clear purpose or connection to learning goals and outcomes. This is done in hopes of improving the curricular quality and effectiveness of units and lessons. It is a goal-focused approach to curriculum design in which teachers need to think purposefully about their curricular planning. The current unit plan exemplifies my ability to use this framework to guide the design of the unit, assessments, lessons and in order to source appropriate materials.

Artifact 2: Language, Culture, and Communication Lesson Plan

Language, Cultural and Communication Lesson Plan.pdf

Description of Artifact

The following artifact is lesson I designed for 9th grade beginner level Spanish students that focuses on the topic of weather. The goal of the lesson is to integrate the study of language and communication with that of culture. This means that the lesson objectives are not only to learn to communicate in speech and writing about the weather in Spanish, but also identify, describe and analyze the weather conditions and patterns in Spanish-speaking places and compare them to those in the U.S. One of my primary goals as a teacher of a foreign language is to situate students learning in a meaningful cultural context. In this lesson, students engage in communication that is both meaningful and authentic while also obtaining a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences between the geography and climate of the U.S. and Spanish-speaking countries. The terms students will be exposed to and learn in relation to the weather exemplify how the study of language can be cross-disciplinary. These concepts connect directly to the material and topics discussed in science and geography classes.

Standards Connection

This artifact demonstrates the IPTS performance indicator 2N which states that "The competent teacher facilitates learning experiences that make connections to other content areas and to life experiences". In this lesson, students learn how to describe and present information about weather conditions in the U.S. and Spanish-speaking places, which is a topic that connects to the disciplines of science, since it addresses geography and climate, and math, since students will have to convert temperatures in Fahrenheit to Celsius and vice versa. This artifact also demonstrates the IPTS performance indicator 2K which states that "The competent teacher engages students in the processes of critical thinking and inquiry and addresses standards of evidence of the disciplines". Activity 2 in the lesson requires students to analyze an authentic Spanish-language text and draw connections between how geography affects climate.

Reflection

Learning to communicate in an additional language involves developing an awareness of the ways in which culture interrelates with language whenever it is used. This relationship- between language and culture- is central to the process of learning another language. In actual language use, it is not the case that it is only the forms of language that convey meaning. It is language in its cultural context that creates meaning. The objective of this lesson is to create a learning experience for students that reflects this essential understanding about language acquisition. While learning how to discuss weather and climate in Spanish, they will engage in a variety of tasks that will build their communicative abilities within a meaningful cultural context.

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